‘Eating disorders can affect anyone’

Understand how ‘eating disorders can affect anyone’ at any time of their lives.

This week (24th February – 2nd March 2025) is Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

This annual event from Beat Eating Disorders is designed to raise awareness and understanding of how eating disorders can affect anyone at any time. Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) is an opportunity to learn about eating disorder impacts and highlight the support that is available.

One of the reasons that this year’s theme was chosen is that ‘4 in 5 survey respondents thought that greater public awareness would make them feel more comfortable to talk about their eating disorder.’1 Being able to talk about it is such an important step to be able to move forward.

Understanding eating disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that can cause serious physical and emotional harm, and even be fatal. There are several types which all  require different kinds of treatment – and, in some cases, these disorders may overlap. It’s important to note that they can affect any gender, age, ethnicity, etc. A common misconception can be that men don’t experience eating disorders, when actually it’s estimated that 1 in 4 of those with eating disorders are male.2

There is no single cause for eating disorders and knowing this is an important part of disputing myths and challenging the stigma. For example, while dieting could be a trigger for one person’s eating disorder, that doesn’t mean it’s a trigger for everyone’s.

Types of eating disorders

• Anorexia nervosa – limiting food and drink intake
• Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) – avoiding certain foods/types of food/overall amount eaten
• Binge Eating Disorder (BED) – eating large quantitates of food, feeling out of control of it
• Bulimia Nervosa – cycle of overeating and then ‘compensating’ by vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, fasting or exercising excessively
• Orthorexia – unhealthy obsession with eating ‘”pure” food
• Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED) – where a persons symptoms may not match specific eating disorder
• Pica – eating non-good substances with no nutritional value
• Rumination Disorder – repetitive habitually bringing up partly digested food
• T1DE – an eating disorder in people with type 1 diabetes. 1

Signs to look out for

While there are a variety of possible signs that someone may have an eating disorder (particularly as there are different types of disorders), there are some general signs you can look for in someone’s mood and behaviour.

• Behaviour around food, such as being self-conscious eating around others, secretive or preoccupied with food, anxiety at mealtimes, taking a long time over meals
• Mood changes such as irritability, mood swings, low-self esteem and feelings of shame, guilt and anxiety
• Tiredness
• Worrying about weight/body shape etc. 1

ARFID can present quite differently and some signs of this include:

• Eating a range of foods but not enough to stay healthy
• Finding eating a ‘chore’
• Avoiding social events with food
• Chewing very carefully, taking every small bites etc. (signs of anxiety at mealtimes)
• Developing nutritional deficiencies. 1

References

1. Beat Eating Disorders (2025) ‘Eating Disorders can affect anyone’. Available at: https://edaw.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/ (Accessed: 25 February 2025)
2. Beat Eating Disorders (2025) ‘Do mean get eating disorders?’ Available at: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/about-eating-disorders/do-men-get-eating-disorders/(Accessed: 25 February 2025)
3. ANDAD (2024) ‘Eating Disorder Statistics’ Available at: https://anad.org/eating-disorder-statistic/#general (Accessed: 25 February 2025)
4. The Checkup by SingleCare (2024) ‘Eating Disorders Statistics 2024’  Available at: https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/eating-disorder-statistics/ (Accessed: 25 February 2025)